Recovery (revised)
by Khiori
Summary: Barely recovering from being a POW, Saavik's closest allies must act fast to save her life-and help her keep the very secret that first sent enemies after her. All while fighting Starfleet and even her own family to do it. (OC from Khiori and Kerjen. Read Kerjen's The Meeting first as this story refers to that camp)


Saavik shifted uncomfortably on her bed, grimacing in pain. "You are  
hovering."

Setik stepped out of the shadows and gave her a calmly reproving look.  
"I am a healer, Mother, it a requirement of the profession." He pulled  
out his bioscanner and tabbed it on.

She scowled. "And obviously, you have spent entirely too much time with,  
Dr. McCoy." Her brow furrowed as she concentrated on ignoring her body  
in general. "I should have known he would somehow manage revenge." She  
shifted again, trying to find a more tolerable position. "You became a  
healer, but not in Starfleet as you originally planned." She resigned  
herself to the pain and stared out the window. "Did T'Kel select the  
Fleet as she originally intended?"

His eyes narrowed. "You do not remember, Mother? She spoke with you  
after you were awakened."

"She did?" Saavik sighed. "At times . . . I do not know if I am really  
here." She looked at him, an eyebrow rising. "What did she choose?"

"Engineering."

"Indeed?" Saavik frowned thoughtfully. "In Starfleet or Vulcan service?"

"Vulcan."

Saavik said nothing.

"T'Pren is a diplomat," he offered.

That brightened her eyes. "Sarek is no doubt pleased." Her brow  
furrowed. "Is he in council again? He has not come."

He lowered his eyes to the safety of his scanner. "Your levels are  
rising again. I will administer another anesthetic."

She sighed. "No more medication, Setik." Her eyes narrowed. "You did not  
answer, my son."

His lips tightened. "Grandfather . . . is dead, Mother."

Saavik whitened. "No," she breathed. She closed her eyes in grief.  
"How?"

"Bendii Syndrome."

She opened her eyes and they were very dark. "It. . . should not have  
been that way." She was silent for a long time and then looked at him in  
worry. "He is in the Hall? With your grandmother?"

He eyed his mother carefully. "Mother, Grandmother is still alive."

She looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Setik, Amanda died before  
you were born."

Understanding filled him. "Ah, I was referring to his second wife."

Saavik's eyes widened in disbelief, then slowly returned to normal.  
"Yes. . ." she rubbed a trembling hand over her face. "Yes, I remember.  
I have not seen her since I returned."

"Perrin is on Earth, Mother."

Saavik looked confused. "Why is she not here? This is the family house."

He tried to think of the most tactful way to put it. "Perrin . . . is even  
less . . . fond of Father than before."

That made Saavik instantly bristle. "The Cardassian issue? Still?" she  
asked sharply.

"Yes, and... Father was not here when Grandfather died."

The look on her face made his mouth taste bitter. "Where was he?" she  
asked quietly.

Setik straightened his shoulders. "He was – is in the Romulan Empire."

Her eyes flashed fire. "What?"

He wished heartily he could be elsewhere. The memory of his parents'  
heated discussions on the subject were still something he avoided  
reliving.

"Did he go alone?"

"I believe you need to rest now."

"Did he go alone?"

He looked at the tiles on the floor a long moment before he met her  
piercing gaze. "Yes. He went alone."

The sheer anguish in her eyes pained him. She struggled in agony to rise  
in the bed. "He was not to do so!"

He stepped forward immediately, pressing her back down. Had she been  
well, he knew he could not have stopped her. As it was, he held her down  
with the mere force it would have taken to control a child. "You cannot  
heal properly without rest."

"I have had enough rest!"

"As your healer, I will determine when you have had enough rest."

She glared at him, but stopped resisting. "I cannot rest with you  
hovering."

His mouth twitched, but he had the intelligence to smother it quickly.  
"You are in no condition to be left unattended."

She gave him a dark look. "I have been unattended for a half a decade,  
Setik. I fail to see the risk involved in an hour alone asleep."

He sighed. "Mother, you are being deliberately difficult."

She blinked and then her anger slowly evaporated. A faint shadow of a  
glint appeared in her eyes, along with a nearly overwhelming weariness.  
"So I have been told before." Her eyes dropped to the floor beside her  
bed. "Ko'Kan will guard me."

The sehlat lifted her graying head off the cool tiles and bared fangs at  
him.

"Ko'Kan is growing old, Mother. Her reflexes for guarding-"

The fangs snapped at his sandals and he edged back.

Saavik gave a breath of a chuckle and then her face contorted  
momentarily. She forced control again and looked fondly down at the  
ancient beast. "My . . . sentiments exactly."

Ko'Kan gave an agreeing snort.

"I do believe that constitutes a mutiny," came a wry voice from the  
doorway.

Setik turned and gave his sister a frosty eyed look. "You are not  
helping."

T'Kel shrugged and pushed off from the door frame she'd been leaning  
against. "How are you feeling, Mother?"

Saavik scowled.

T'Kel's lips twitched. She bent over Saavik's bed and gently brushed the  
dark hair off of Saavik's forehead with long fingers. "You are rather  
warm. Would you care for a drink of something cool?"

Saavik sighed. "I have no respect from my children."

T'Kel's mouth quirked. "Water or juice?"

"Her enteral-nutritional supplement is in the refrigeration unit," said  
Setik.

Saavik narrowed her eyes at her son. "My sensation of taste is still  
quite functional."

"Juice it is," said T'Kel. "And I will locate your brush." She  
disappeared back out the room.

Setik folded his arms across his chest. "Were you this obstinate at the  
Starfleet facility?"

"I was unconscious."

"That could be arranged."

She gave him a long look. "When I next meet with Dr. McCoy, we are going  
to have a discussion."

T'Kel reappeared with a glass. The two carefully eased Saavik up, eyes  
widening as they caught the quickly smothered wave of pain the motion  
caused. T'Kel shot her brother a look over their mother's head, drawing  
her brother's gaze to the sweat damp tangle of dark hair and down the  
back of the simple shift.

His blue eyes narrowed.

Saavik finished the glass and sighed, tired at last. "Thank you," she  
murmured. "I feel. . . ." Without warning, her dark lashed eyes grew  
distant and her body grew limp.

Setik's brows lifted in instant alarm. "Mother?" He ran his scanner  
quickly over her. "T'Kel-"

T'Kel was already moving, long fingers reaching for the psi points in  
her mother's face, even as her brother leaned to press a hypo spray  
against the smooth skin of Saavik's throat.

But Saavik's body trembled and she blinked, eyes struggling to refocus,  
and they both paused, waiting tensely.

"Spock?" Saavik almost slurred, eyes widening in confused alarm.

"You are safe." T'Kel stroked her face tenderly. "You are safe."

Setik leaned close and deliberately touched his mother's face. "Do you  
remember who we are?"

Saavik's eyes slowly focused on the faces of her children. There was a  
long moment while they held their breath, and then Saavik's eyes  
sharpened to a bleary but normal gaze and she frowned in confusion. "You  
are not that problematic of children."

They breathed out in relief.

Saavik winced in pain. "What happened?"

Setik frowned down at his scanner and shook his head. "You began command  
lock again."

Saavik's eyebrows drew together. "What do you mean again?"

He hesitated and looked at T'Kel. She gave him a firm nod and he took a  
deep breath. "This is the fourth time since we reopened your mind that  
you have slipped towards another lockout."

Saavik's eyes narrowed. "The fourth?" She gave both of her children a  
dark look. "And when were you going to mention this to me?"

Setik actually colored slightly. "Father said that he did not wish any  
undue stress-"

Saavik's fair skin darkened as her temper rose.

"Too late," sighed T'Kel.

"Where is your father, now?" Saavik said tightly.

"With T'Qet at the science academy," he said instantly.

"At the-" Saavik stopped and her gaze became piercingly sharp. "Who is  
T'Qet?" she demanded.

Setik licked his lips. "My betrothed."

Saavik lost color so fast that he leapt for another hypo spray and  
pressed it against her throat. "You . . . are bonded?" A new pain showed  
in her face. "Why am I told nothing? Does it no longer matter to you?  
Sarek. . .is dead. My children . . . Spock . . . I do not . . . know any of  
you any more." She turned her face away and closed her eyes tightly. "I  
need to rest, leave me."

They gently lowered her back down, covered her lightly with an open  
weave blanket and slipped out the room in utter silence.

Through the newly reformed bond, they could "hear" her weep softly.

Setik sank down into the old rocking chair, shoulders sagging. "I am  
severely lacking as a healer."

T'Kel touched his brown robe lightly. "Even Gol said her grief would be  
unavoidable." She settled to the floor and crossed her legs. "She has  
lost years in what to her was merely a . . . being." She shook her head.  
"Everything has changed except for her. It is . . . disorienting."

"It would be better if T'Pren were here."

T'Kel's mouth twitched at the thought of their persuasive sister. "She  
will be here in four days."

"Mother needs . . . something . . . now."

She nodded. Both of their gazes returned to the hallway. Setik cocked  
his head, 'listening' with the elevated psi of a healer. "She has fallen  
asleep."

They both sighed.

"She is not healing as she should, is she?" said T'Kel softly. She  
forced her face to ease back into proper discipline. "Give me your  
observations."

His eyebrow angled up. "You have read the same reports as Gol."

T'Kel snorted. "I have. Now give me the other half."

The corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly. "You are rather more  
observant than is natural for an engineer."

She gave her brother a reproving look and leaned against the estate's  
cool wall. "I understand now why Father says Mother has never obeyed  
healers well." She frowned ever so slightly. "I believe it is  
psychological remnants from Thieurrull."

Setik flinched and his blue eyes narrowed. "You will avoid referencing  
that . . . place. Mother's mental condition is precarious enough in the  
present without inflicting the past upon her."

T'Kel bowed, accepting the reproof of her elder brother. She stared back  
down the darkened hallway. "Setik, Gol is . . . uncertain she will fully  
recover."

Setik's chin rose. "She will recover."

T'Kel glanced back at him and her dark eyes glinted wryly. "And Setik of  
Vulcan knows more than T'Lar of Gol?"

His blue eyes were unyielding. "Setik of Saavik does."

T'Kel's eyebrows lifted. "And Father thinks I have an overly stimulated  
self concept."

His chin rose higher. "It is not arrogance, it is perception."

T'Kel studied her brother carefully. At last she nodded slowly. "You  
were closest to Mother. I will accept that perhaps you hold . . . some  
insight I do not. Explain what your insight tells you."

He shook his head. "She should not be relapsing into the command lock.  
It is a conscious decision a Vulcan officer can self-engage to prevent  
mental tampering or the forcible extraction of sensitive information.  
Once we reopened that lock, it should have been complete." He got up to  
pace. "Her memory also should be normal. Gol found no outside sign of  
memory alteration or erasure."

T'Kel looked at him. "Starfleet seems anxious that she recall her  
experience."

He studied his sister a long moment and then took a chance. He strode  
over to the main house terminal and quickly keyed in a code.

Her eyes widened. "Why are you engaging the privacy screens?"

He returned, his blue eyes unreadable. "T'Pren has . . . come across. .  
.some information. She says that Mother was only allowed to return home  
because the admiralty believed Gol would be successful in restoring her  
memory."

T'Kel bristled instantly. "Why?"

"They seem inordinately interested in learning what her captors were so  
desperate to acquire from her."

T'Kel whitened. "More than what the other officers reported?"

"T'Pren said the admiralty appears to have narrowed it to three  
possibilities where Mother alone of the others possessed or had access  
to classified or potentially destructive knowledge."

T'Kel swallowed. "Tell me."

"The Genesis Project, the Romulan Reunification Movement, or the Gorkon  
Conspiracy."

"You are saying . . . Mother could be the reason the ship was taken?"

"No. I am saying it was."

They stared at each other.

"But her captors failed," said T'Kel, "she was able to instigate the  
lock before she could be forced to release the information."

"The admiralty knows."

"Then why the concern?"

"Because, given the intensity of the rescue media coverage, everyone in  
the Federation knows she was sent to Vulcan to recover."

T'Kel paled. "They will try again."

He nodded. "Mother is only half Vulcan. In her current state, she will  
be unable to reinitiate the lock."

"But she does not remember the interrogations!" protested T'Kel. "She  
does not know what they were looking for!"

"It will not matter." He stepped closer. "They do."

From down the hall, Ko'kan's growl sounded and then abruptly was  
silenced. They stood there in shock for a moment and then looked at each  
other in complete alarm.

And ran for their mother.

*****

Spock's eyes were as black as they could ever remember. "You left her  
alone?" The words were spoken utterly without inflection, but both Setik  
and T'Kel flinched. Spock turned to Ruanek. "What can you tell me?"

The Romulan straightened back up, hand automatically resting on the  
disruptor he had armed himself with. He frowned. "I find no evidence of  
a struggle, from either her or the sehlat."

Spock's brow furrowed. He looked down at Ko'Kan. The old beast looked  
positively ashamed. He reached down and stroked the worn head. "Ko'Kan  
would not have accepted intrusion calmly." He looked back at his  
children. "You said she gave her alarm?"

They nodded. Setik tilted his head. "And then she went silent."

Spock's eyebrow lifted. "A command." He looked again at Ko'Kan. "From  
someone she recognized as able to give such."

Ruanek frowned. "How many would your sehlat accept?"

Spock shook his head. "Immediate family, intimate friends."

The exiled Romulan nodded thoughtfully. "Could you construct a list?"

Spock nodded absently.

T'Kel and Setik looked at each other, then back at their father.

Spock abruptly leaned over, thrusting his hand in and about the rumpled  
bedding. A curious look came over his face as he pulled out a sheathed  
blade.

Setik's eyes widened.

Spock turned the blade over in his hands almost lovingly. Then his eyes  
hardened. "She would have used this." He looked at Ruanek. "Had she been  
able."

The Romulan nodded. "Then either she was unable or chose not to."

T'Kel's brow knit. "Why would she choose not to?"

Spock looked at the sehlat. "The same reason that Ko'Kan chose to obey."

Setik felt positively ill. "They did not recognize an enemy."

T'Kel's eyebrow rose sharply. "What friend comes through a window?"

Ruanek eyed the window. "A very persuasive one." They all looked at him.  
"Your sehlat may be old-" Ko'Kan gave a warning rumble, "–and Saavik  
may have been weak, but they are not fools." He looked at Spock. "Unless  
they could have been convinced almost on mere sight, one of them would  
have fought."

Spock studied Ko'Kan. "Children, you will assist Ruanek." His dark eyes  
locked onto theirs. "It is imperative that no one know of your mother's  
disappearance. I do not want Starfleet involved."

Setik looked uneasy. "Mother was scheduled for another series of tests  
in two days. Starfleet Medical is sending a physician here."

Spock did not look perturbed. He raised an eyebrow. "And, given the  
sensitivity of the abuse she has undergone, does not the family reserve  
the right to select her physician?"

Setik blinked. "Doctor McCoy."

T'Kel frowned. "He is no longer a licensed physician."

Spock nodded. "However, he is well known to be accepted by this family."

"And he retains the expertise necessary to perform the tests with my  
assistance." added Setik.

Ruanek smiled.

Spock lifted an eyebrow. "You find this humorous?"

"Friend Spock, what Romulan would not find the concept of Vulcans  
plotting to be humorous?"

Spock sighed. "Move quickly. Your mother will not survive another  
imprisonment." 

Saavik woke damp with sweat and agonized. For a horrific instant, she  
fully expected to see the camp, that her return 'home' was all just some clever new psychological torment from her captors. But as her eyes focused on the darkness, she found herself in a small, clean room. She lifted her head, fighting the throbbing pain in it and peered around. A lavatory cubicle, and her cot were the only features of her new quarters and she sighed. No window, a locked door.

But it wasn't the camp.

Memory shivered in the back of her mind and she thrust it away.

Now was not the time to remember.

The door's lock clicked and Saavik winced at the brightness of the light  
outside. She lifted a hand to protect her eyes, humiliated that it shook  
against her will.

"How are you feeling?" The voice, a young man's voice, was familiar. She felt a memory shiver at the edges of her mind. And then just like that a name slid through the aching mists of her mind.

Thuray. Son of an old enemy turned Blood Friend. She trusted him, she remembered now. This wasn't an old cell or a new one. It was a safe house.

Saavik sighed dryly. "I would hope that is a purely rhetorical question."

But in spite the distance between them, she could feel his grief. And fear.

"May I have water?" Saavik asked, to distract them both. "I am thirsty."

The light disappeared as the door closed. Saavik waited patiently.

The door reopened and shut behind the other. A first hesitating and then firm blue hand slid beneath her head and lifted her to drink. Saavik drank gratefully of the cool water in slow pained sips and then was eased back down with infinite gentle care. He smoothed her hair with kind fingers, being absolutely careful to not touch any of the psi points. But her shields were barely functioning and his emotions were strong and it hurt.

She kept her face still.

Some pain was worth suffering.

"We will be moving in a few hours." He said softly, his eyes full of sorrowful deepness. "I will need to prepare you."

Saavik grimaced but nodded. "They will have begun the search. I am ready." 

He touched her once more and then a hypo hissed against her throat and she felt an immediate numbness spreading throughout her body. And with it an incredible desire to sleep. She was dimly aware of careful almost reverent hands stripping her of the sweat sodden shift.


End file.
